Cain

Cain, Jose Saramago's final novel, is another of the author's attacks on religion in general and especially the Abrahamic faiths. Saramago showed how deeply he could cut with his 1991 masterpiece, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, a troubling, fascinating retelling of the gospels. In that book, biblical contradictions became a source of delight. With Cain, the source book is the Old Testament, but instead of delighting, Saramago chooses to bully and preach at us. As a sort of prequel to his earlier novel, Cain is unnecessary; as a work in itself it is a mess; and as a conclusion to an important literary career, it doesn't seem to fit.  read more »